Summer tomatoes

Every time we head out to the backyard now, little man goes straight for the tomato plants. We had a slow start to our tomatoes this year since we were in France from mid-May to early June. Even though we weren’t able to plant them until we got home, I knew we’d eventually have some tomatoes to enjoy thanks to our long warm season.

Well, they’re not as impressive as last year, but we have definitely been enjoying lots of cherry tomatoes. Most of them have been eaten right off the plant. This is little man’s preferred method of tomato-consumption. In fact, there have been times when he’s eaten tomatoes voraciously while outside, only to flat out refuse the very same tomatoes in his high chair. I guess I officially have a toddler.

As long as the warm weather persists, I’ll at least be able to get him eating veggies on our trips out to the backyard. Next summer, he might even be know how to choose between green and red ripe tomatoes. What a wonderful way to learn your colors.

For now, we’re taking full advantage of our warm days while they last.

Get in my mouth!

Homemade fruit leathers

I admittedly have a sweet tooth. I love dessert of all kinds. I know it’s a bit of a confession for someone who fancies themselves a fresh, clean eating foodie, but my concession food of choice if we’re at the movie theater would be sour patch kids. I think it’s the nostalgia from junior high sleep overs combined with loving all things sour. (Seriously, just ask my husband how I make my vinaigrette). Alas and alack, eating sour patch kids on a regular basis is just not going to happen anymore. Enter, homemade fruit leathers. You can whip up your own “gummy candy” with as much or as little sugar as you want. I’ve chosen to make my fruit leathers without any sugar added at all and find them very tasty!

Making fruit leathers is really easy. Choose whatever fruit you have in excess. You can be creative here and combine fruits if you’d like. Peel & cut up the fruit if appropriate. Cook the fruit down in a pot over medium heat. If you still have big chunks in the fruit at this point, you can give it a run in the food processor, but this step is not always necessary. 

Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spread the fruit mixture on top. Put the fruit leathers out in the sun to dry. You can also dry them in your oven if you can get your oven down to 170 degrees or less. Mine doesn’t go that low, so I use the sun. 

Here are some kiwi fruit leathers, starting to dry.

Here it is fully dried. Kiwi looks kind of odd with all the seeds, but I actually really like the crunch.

Roll the parchment paper up and cut the fruit leathers into strips. They can now be stored in the freezer and taken out 10-15 minutes before you’re ready to enjoy them.

Below, the same process using blueberries: